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concerns of the Southeast Conference as well, those who oppose the 

 $40 million federal funding, as well as groups fighting for their jobs 

 and life styles, such as Women in Timber. 



The important aspects of our proposal are, first, it does not walk 

 away from the commitment made by the United States to the 

 people of Southeastern Alaska. Two, it does not upset the basic 

 compromise of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 

 Act of 1980. Our bill will repeal the mandate that the Forest Serv- 

 ice make 4.5 million board feet of timber available to the depend- 

 ent industry each decade. Under our bill, the actual amount of 

 timber prepared for sale, sold and harvested, would be limited by 

 the annual Congressional appropriation, a sustained yield capacity 

 of the forest which includes protection of fish and wildlife and the 

 demand market for timber. In addition, we would require a suffi- 

 cient amount of land outside the existing wilderness remain in 

 multiple use management to support the timber-dependent South- 

 east communities on a sustainable yield basis. 



Mr. Chairman, it is my hope that you and others will keep a per- 

 spective on the many important issues that will be brought to your 

 attention by the witnesses this morning. These include, Mr. Chair- 

 man, old growth, virgin stands, clear-cutting, in addition to wilder- 

 ness and buffer zones free from timber cutting around our small 

 communities and spawning streams and winter kill of our deer 

 population along the beach and free stands or old growth to sustain 

 the deer habitat, along with the pressures on the deer from both 

 wolf kill and hunting by man. 



The contribution of second growth stands, such as those in vari- 

 ous areas. Prince Wales Island, cut during the Second World War, 

 yielding nearly tenfold new forest contributing as a sump, if you 

 will, assimilating carbon dioxide, is making a positive contribution 

 to the world's warming trend, the realization that over 40 percent 

 of the Tongass is deteriorating and dying and the only utilization is 

 in the form of wood fiber, not lumber, of the timber taken. 



Mr. Chairman, it is important that we include in the record the 

 Tongass land statistics attached hereto, and I would ask that those 

 be included in the record at this time, basically a summary of the 

 5.7 million acres of harvestable, old-growth forest land in the Ton- 

 gass, two-thirds is already set aside for fishing, wildlife, recreation 

 and wilderness, two-thirds of the commercial old growth forest, 1.7 

 million acres or one-third was put in wilderness in 1980 and is 

 there in perpetuity. Roughly one-third, 2.3 million acres, is man- 

 aged for fish and game and wildlife and other uses, which exclude 

 road construction and logging. There remains only 1.7 million 

 acres, or one-third of the harvestable timber, that will ever be 

 logged. That is only 10 percent of the entire 17 million acre forest. 



Don Young asked me to emphasize the significance of another 

 piece of legislation, H.R. 1368, a bill recorded by the Forest Sub- 

 committee and the House Agriculture Committee. This requires 

 the Forest Service to meet market demands, up to 4.5 million board 

 feet per decade and does away with the $40 million Federal fund- 

 ing. It is quite similar to my bill. We think that is very significant 

 on the House side. 



Mr. Chairman, our bill S. 237 represents a compromise. We have 

 eliminated the $40 million annual Federal funding where so much 



